Suspending free movement along Myanmar border: Amit Shah

In a post on X, Shah said, “It is Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji’s resolve to secure our borders. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar be scrapped to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India’s North Eastern States bordering Myanmar. Since the Ministry of External Affairs is currently in the process of scrapping it, MHA has recommended the immediate suspension of the FMR.”

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh thanked the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister for scrapping the FMR and for their commitment to secure the border. In a post on X, Singh said, “Immensely grateful to Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji and Hon’ble HM Shri Amit Shah Ji for their commitment to securing our borders. The decision to scrap the FMR between India and Myanmar, as recommended by the Minister of Home Affairs, India, is crucial for our internal security and the demographic integrity of our North Eastern States.”

“This is yet another historic decision in curbing illegal immigration and strengthening our internal security after the recent announcement to fence the 1,643 km Indo-Myanmar border by Government of India,” Singh said.

The border between India and Myanmar runs along four states – Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The FMR is a mutually agreed arrangement between the two countries that allows tribes living along the border to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.

Under the FMR, every member of the hill tribes, who is either a citizen of India or a citizen of Myanmar and who is a resident of any area within 16 km on either side of the border, can cross over on production of a border pass with one-year validity and can stay up to two weeks.

The FMR was implemented in 2018 as part of the Modi government’s Act East policy at a time when diplomatic relations between India and Myanmar were on the upswing. In fact, the FMR was to be put in place in 2017 itself but was deferred due to the Rohingya refugee crisis that erupted that August.

Biren Singh has been one of the biggest votaries of sealing the Indo-Myanmar border. The BJP government led by him in Manipur, as well as large sections of Meitei civil society, have been pointing at “large scale illegal immigration” of Chins from Myanmar – of the same ethnicity as the Kuki-Zomis as Manipur – as the root cause of the volatility in the region.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has also been in support of both the decision of fencing the border and suspending the FMR, hailing them as moves to safeguard the border. He issued a nearly identical statement to that of Biren Singh on Thursday.

“The decision to revoke the Free Movement Regime between India & Myanmar holds immense significance for our internal security and demographic integrity of the North Eastern States. This landmark decision signifies yet another important step in the ongoing efforts to address illegal immigration. This builds on the recent announcement by the Govt of India to fence the 1643 km Indo-Myanmar border,” he said on X.

However, the reception to these developments have been markedly different in Mizoram and Nagaland. While the Chin people living in the Chin state of Myanmar, contiguous with Mizoram, are of the same ethnicity of the Mizos as well as the Kuki-Zomis of Manipur, there is also a sizeable Naga population in Myanmar, largely in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, and the Mizo-Chins and Nagas on both sides of the border share close social, economic and day-to-day relationships.

Mizoram Chief Minister from the Zoram People’s Movement Lalduhoma has been vocally critical of his opposition to sealing the border, even while conceding that he does not have the authority to stop the Centre from taking these steps.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio – who heads an NDPP-BJP coalition government – has been more calculating in his response, while large sections of Naga civil society have expressed their opposition to these moves. He has suggested that there needs to be a “workable formula” given the presence of Nagas on both sides of the border.